I got obsessed with adjustments when I got my RAS... spent WAY too much time tuning and tweaking...
I realized that when I cut something on my brother's RAS, an old craftsman that I'd envied for years... it was so "untuned" and "untweaked" that it shouldn't of cut paper.. but it still cuts things square and works... it just LOOKS weird.. (I think that his table is way off, but his fence and blade seem square to the table so it works)
With my BS, I took it out of the box, followed the instructions for assembly and setup, and started sawing... if cuts straight and seems to work, so I don't mess with it...
In my fumbling education on BS blades, I tried 3/4"... I tried a size at a time and ended up with a 3/8" blade... and I can make straighter cuts with it than the 3/4" blade and it drags a LOT less on my lil' 3/4 hp motor.. That's a major consideration when you're using an under powered saw with 8 or 10 inch thick wood.. Mac
So far my biggest problem with the 3/4" blade is starting the cut in hard wood: the first bite into the stock must be made very tentative, or those big 3tpi teeth will grab hard and jerk--deeper and it'll stop the motor! Then it's modest feed rate (for the 1hp motor) and smooth sailing.
Thanks for the thought, but no, this is not what is going on. The blade tracks very well, though a bit behind middle on the upper wheel and a bit in front of middle on the bottom. The issue that has me continuing this is that the blade is not perpendicular to the table in the direction of the cut, which seems to me to be a fairly serious issue.
Harvey, I don't see how the wheels can be adjusted either. Have you called the service department at JET ? For technical service concerning JET, POWERMATIC, PERFORMAX, and WILTON retail products call 800-274-6846 - 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (CST, Monday - Friday). You never know what to expect from a service department but they might be knowledgable and helpful.
Yes, Charlie. I have called - twice, in fact. The first time I was told to loosen the bolt holding the lower and upper units together, and that this would give me enough movement for adjustment.
interpret the picture correctly. It could use to go forward half the straightedge gap distance, which would give you about twice the correction to run that blade back to the crown.
Glad I have "old iron" in my shop.Without the blade, when you raise the upper guard, does the deviation from vertical on a point on it display the same displacement? If it does, could be that he's right, and it's a riser block problem.
amazon reviews) that for a while delta(?) risers weren't fitting properly to their bandsaws and the "solution" was to remove the alignment pins on the riser to allow it to be fitted.
You might consider doing something similar to change the relationship of the lower and upper frame. You should probably contact Jet first to see what they think of it.
Thanks for the suggestion. I spoke with Jet yesterday. The tech was going to contact his supervisor, etc, and get back to me on Monday. I can only see 2 ways of resolving this - shim the lower wheel out, if possible, or your suggestion. I hadn't actually thought of removing the alignment pins, but I don't see how that could hurt. Then it would just be a matter of sliding the upper unit out until everything lined up.
Since the Jet tech told you to try to adjust the riser block that would suggest that the wheels are supposed to be coplanar. If they try to reverse direction and tell you that they are currently correct be very suspicious. Someone mentioned possibly removing the alignment pin so the riser could be aligned, I don't know about removing the alignment pin, that would make a single bolt have to hold everything together on every axis. Stuff happens when you are using power tools and without that pin there is nothing to keep the two pieces from twisting if something heavy knocks into it. In my opinion this would be an unacceptable solution to a manufacturing problem. I know all manufacturers have a hiccup once in a while, so hopefully they will step up to the plate and get this resolved. In the event that you cannot get satisfaction dealing directly with Jet, since you ordered the saw through Woodcraft, what is their opinion on this ? Can you return the saw for a full refund ? If this is an option I might go for it instead of continuing to mess with what you have. In the 14" saws I found very little difference between Jet, Delta, and Rigid. The only reason I ended up buying a Jet instead of a Rigid was a combination offer from Rockler of sale price, rebate, and free table vise, otherwise I would have bought the Rigid saw from Home Depot because it was $150 cheaper at regular price.
Yes, it will be interesting to hear what Jet says, hopefully tomorrow. I appreciate your comments regarding removing the locater pins. Perhaps I will need to drill new holes in the riser block. You are certainly right, stuff happens.
Yes, Charlie, it has. I posted a report yesterday under a different heading, but include it below for you: ================================================= As I wrote earlier, my new 14" JET bandsaw arrived with the wheels about
1/4" out of plane, though the saw cut well. However, the blade was not square to the table in the direction of cut. I created a web page to show the JET tech what was going on.
See:
formatting link
tech thought that the riser block may have been machined badly, which I didn't believe as the saw had the problem before I put the riser block in. However, he offered to send me a new one, which I accepted.
Sure enough, there was no improvement, but I took the opportunity of having 2 riser blocks to experiment on one.
As mentioned here, I though of cutting off the pins to allow me to adjust the upper part of the saw, but somebody on this group (sorry, I don't remember who) pointed out that it could be dangerous if the bolt loosened for any reason as there would be nothing to stop the upper part of the saw from twisting around the bolt.
So instead, I drilled new locater holes in the riser block 1/4" offset. after installing it so the upper part is now 1/4" further back than originally, the wheels are ever so close to being coplaner, the blade is square, and I just re-sawed some 5" southern yellow pine into 1/8" veneers, plus or minus 1/16" (thicknesses from 1/16 - 3/16") which I considered very good indeed. The surface is also much cleaner than I had before, though that could be due to better guide setup.
I don't have any idea why the saw was designed this way, but I am very happy with the solution. I can recommend this saw to others, but with the caveat that you may want to either perform the same modification, or perhaps shim the bottom wheel out. BTW - tech okeyed shimming, and promised it wouldn't affect the warranty. I was concerned about the wheel riding 1/4" further out on the shaft, with added wear. Anyway, I am now happy with what I have.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.